Amber (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

I have been working hard to find a venue for Jelloman’s birthday dinner the last few months. Since neither of us has returned to Amber for dinner since Amber 2.0 officially started (my better half did return for lunch once), I thought it would be a nice walk down memory lane for the both of us. After all, it was a place we had fond memories of from the time we started dating. That felt like a long long time ago now.
 

Little nugget wasn’t invited tonight as Richard Ekkebus’ fine-dining restaurant has very strict rules about kids dining in (I think it’s 9 years or older). I could definitely understand their rationale behind and since daddy was too cheap to fork out the minimum charge to secure a private room, it would be just us two old folks (兩老) celebrating tonight.

 
Our last dinner here probably dated back a few years ago (with the next one likely around the time Amber 3.0 officially starts) so both of us agreed taking the Full Amber Menu which was their longest tasting menu. Little nugget probably won’t be thrilled about this decision considering that daddy and mommy would be late coming home.
 
Our first amuse bouche was a small salad made with girolles, pickled shallots, seaweed, mussels with vichyssoise, wakame oil, and tiny croûtons made of potatoes. There was some lovely acidity from the girolles, shallots and mussels worked well with the refreshing vichyssoise. A pretty nice small bite to start the meal with.

 
It was accompanied by Amber’s classic raspberry foie gras lollipop. We haven’t had one of these for ages!

 
The first course of the menu was amberjack served with heirloom tomatoes, dehydrated watermelon topped by kombu, shiso leaf and edible flower petals. The key of this dish came from the slightly frozen temperature of the bowl and a couple of ingredients including the watermelon, giving us a very refreshing feel.

There was also a mix of complicated flavors including kombu, sake and shiso, backed up nicely by some extra heat from ginger. An excellent dish to get our palates ready.

 
Immediately following the amberjack was arguably the most iconic dish Amber has ever put on the table – Aka Uni Cauliflower Lobster with Kristal Caviar.
 
This was a miniature version that they were serving with the tasting menu but with the same winning formula featuring Aka Uni from Hokkaido and silky cauliflower cream in a delicate lobster jelly, topped elegantly with Kristal Caviar and gold foil. I thought this was off the menu for good but obviously not (great news for everyone!).

I’m not going to say too much about the symphony of exciting flavors from this dish cuz it’s impossible to describe in words. 

And I’m not going to waste any of it on the crispy seaweed wafer tonight!

 
Next dish was Japanese Suzuki, served in an emulsion with an array of fruity flavors (with acidity) including orange, bell pepper and tarragon oil, matched up admirably with the clean flavors of braised fennel and diced fennel compote. The calamari was tender but it looked a bit out of place in an already busy dish.

 
We were at the mid-way point of the meal here when our Blue Lobster dish arrived. The French lobster meat was matched with summer squash (yeah always taste just like pumpkin to me), caper leaf and extra virgin lemon olive oil so there was a fair amount of sweetness and acidity in play. The dish was finished off with a zesty touch courtesy of a few sprinkles of Sicilian lemon zest added on tableside. A pretty good dish that I originally expected to be great.

 
Duck foie gras and purple artichoke was another interesting combination. The silky smooth French foie gras wrapped with cabbage was paired with stuffed artichoke and seared pork belly on the side.

 
The "ratatouille-style" purple artichoke came with stuffing made of carrots, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Not bad.

Our final savory dish was milk-fed lamb which came in two parts, two slices of the lamb loin and a strip from the leg. An earthy coriander espuma, violin zucchini topped with lime vinaigrette, and avocado cream topped with jalapeño provided the dish with a powerful finish.  I really enjoyed the different parts of the lamb. The loin was very soft and tender while the leg a little more firm with greater texture but I don't know if I liked all the intense flavors surrounding the lamb. Just a bit over the top for me.

The first of our three desserts was rhubarb compote with begonia petals and strawberry sorbet and honey. A very fragrant and exotic dessert with some numbing effects thanks to the sansho. I like the combination of flavors there except for the rhubarb compote (I would rather have bittermelon any day instead of rhubarb!) which brought a little too much acidity to the dish.

Another dessert with a fair amount of acidity, this time from the sauce made of clementine. The extra virgin sunflower oil, sunflower seeds and marigold added some floral notes to the dish along with some great, contrasting textures. My favorite dessert out of the three.

Manjari bitter chocolate, “rice milk”, extra virgin olive oil, raspberry and Banyuls vinegar. We noticed the acidity level went up a notch with each single dessert so at this point, it was already over our limit. We both decided to throw in the white towel on this one.

When I called to make the booking a few weeks ago, I told the staff that we're celebrating my wife's birthday and asked them to kindly write a few words on her dessert. What I didn't realize was the fact that they would offer us a small vanilla mousse cake (with the wording). What a nice gesture! 

And just when we thought we couldn't possibly take on more food, here comes the petite fours.

Food Rating: 7/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 7/F, The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, 15 Queen's Road, Central, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Central
Tel: +852 2132-0066
Website: www.amberhongkong.com
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 1:45pm, 6:00pm - 12:00am daily

S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants: 100th (2021)
S. Pellegrino Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: 37th (2021)